How GemPool Fills SaaS Roles Faster Than Anyone Else

You know the agencies that always seem to be ahead, the ones with a name you keep hearing, who seem to win the roles before they're even properly briefed. GemPool is one of those agencies in the Irish SaaS software engineering market. Michael Lantry has been on the inside of that business since 2012 and now sits on the Board.

In this session, Michael breaks down how GemPool actually operates: how they built CTO and developer communities that bring talent and trust to them rather than chasing it, how their relationship strategy gets them into roles before they're formally open, how marketing became a genuine engine for pipeline rather than a side project, and how they're using AI, not as a buzzword, but by working out what's repeatable and automatable versus what needs to stay with skilled people, and challenging where tech spend actually earns its keep.

While the detail is SaaS-specific, the principles, building category authority, engineering relationships that pre-empt the market, making marketing do real commercial work, and getting disciplined about AI and tech spend, apply just as directly whether you're placing finance professionals, healthcare staff, or skilled trades. This is what it looks like when a recruitment business gets these fundamentals right, and the results speak for themselves.

What you'll learn:

• How to build a community that generates inbound trust and pipeline, not just visibility
• A relationship strategy that gets you ahead of the market, not reacting to it
• How to turn marketing from a cost centre into a genuine revenue driver
• A practical framework for deciding what to automate with AI vs. what stays human
• How to challenge your tech stack and spend without disrupting what's working

If you want to see what it looks like when community, relationships, marketing and AI all work together to drive results, this is the session for you.